


i'll be home for christmas

by arrows (orphan_account)



Category: Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Music, F/M, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-24
Updated: 2013-12-24
Packaged: 2018-01-04 11:42:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1080604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/arrows
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Christmas music is to Kate as Captain America is to Clint.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i'll be home for christmas

Christmas music is to Kate as Captain America is to Clint. It makes her want to be a good person, to correct what she's done wrong and hug all her friends and all that cheesy stuff.

It also isn't as easy to escape as Cap is, around the holidays.

When Kate walks into the grocery store to buy some cat food, maybe some soup or something, she's not expecting the Christmas music. Weird, since it's a week before Christmas, but she's been kinda wrapped up in her own shit lately (Madame Masque, trying to figure out who cat food guy is, etc., etc.) so she hasn't had time to notice.

She barely has a chance to think  _Oh shit what am I gonna get Clint_  before she realizes -- duh, she won't be getting Clint  _anything_ , she's half a country away and she doesn't have the funds to ship it or even buy him anything, and besides, she's still kinda mad at him and she's sure he's still mad at her too. He's the kind of guy to hold grudges.

Then  _the song_  starts playing.

 _I'll be home for Christmas, you can count on me_ \-- and before the first chorus is over, she's running out of the store without the cat food and soup. Leaning against her bike and frowning hard,  _come on Kate, it's been years since mom died, what the hell are you all upset for now._  But there's two things in the world that bring back memories of her mom; origami cranes and the sad Christmas songs that played in a loop in her room the year her mom died.

Christmas songs, combined with thoughts of her mom, make Kate want to be  _good_. 

The next day, she leaves the cat with that nice couple from the Orchid Incident and uses the money she's saved to buy a plane ticket.

* * *

She's standing outside the door.

 _Just go in already_ , she tells herself;  _did you really fly all this way out here for no reason?_ But it scares her. It shouldn't, but it does. Because there's the weight of a door and a whole country between them, and she hasn't talked to Clint since the fight that led her to California, and look how well that turned out.

She's standing outside the door and Lucky is moving around too much for her to keep hold of his leash. It slides out of her hand, and she's running after that  _stupid dog_. "Lucky, come back!" Wouldn't it just be ironic if she lost the dog now.

He runs into the stairwell and starts going up. There's no way Kate'll be able to catch him going up stairs, so she sighs and walks up after him. Two floors later, they're at the roof. The door is sitting to the side off of its hinges, and Kate wonders when that happened; realizes how much she's probably missed.

Then she sees who Lucky was running to, and he sees her.

"Katie?" she hears him ask. His voice sounds broken, and though the entire building seems to be there --  _right_ , the Christmas party, how did she forget? -- they're just looking at each other.

She fakes a smile and waves. "Hey, Clint. Been a while."

Lucky, always even more of a troublemaker than Kate or Clint, is pushing Clint towards Kate. She can't keep a real smile off her face. The way he's stumbling forward, turning around to tell the dog  _no_ but he keeps going, it's ridiculous. She laughs.

* * *

 

There's a good chance this looks bad. Okay, yeah, it looks really bad. But neither of them can find it in them to care.

The California sun has soaked into Kate's mouth and Clint can taste it in her kisses. She's learned to mimic the waves just right as she presses against him. 

Kate can smell the alcohol on Clint's breath and he's anything but graceful, but she's been wanting to kiss him for  _months_ , since she left. California guys are a poor substitute for a superhero.

"Katie?" he murmurs, and she moves half an inch away. Just long enough to realize they're in the stairwell, with the door still off, and the entire building is pretending not to be watching them.

They decide with a glance that neither of them care all that much. They can barely hear the dog's barking over their own thundering heartbeats.

* * *

 

They wake up on Clint's couch, and their legs are intertwined like a stereotype from a romantic comedy.

"Merry Christmas, Clint," Kate says against the skin of his shoulder.

"Mm, merry Christmas, Katie."

**Author's Note:**

> Hell yeah, got this finished in time for Christmas. Happy holidays everyone! Comment if you liked it, or with constructive criticism, please!


End file.
